Friday, May 17, 2013

Did you miss me? I missed you so allow me to give you a bit of a fun whopper of a return blog. I make a lot of lists. I post about a lot of "greatest" this and "best" that and well I always seem to imply that each of these rankings are merely the tip of the iceberg. For every Top 100 films list I put together it always seems like there are hundreds of films lying on the cutting room floor. Well in case you were wondering here is all of it. All of my favorite/best/greatest films. All the movies that I've handed out a five-star rating to from the dawn of cinema to the present day. This has been a continuously updated list that I tweak as necessary so I will most likely come back to this very blog post to update it. So if you're going to bookmark my blog (and I seriously hope you all have by now) this is a pretty good post to do so on.

Hey Dave, What the hell is a Film Canon?
Allow me to quote directly from the almighty Wikipedia: "Film canon is the limited group of movies that serve as the measuring stick for the highest quality in the film genre, based on criteria that look past personal and popular taste, to encompass only those that "artistically defined film history." Now that last bit of writing was from Paul Schraeder, who wrote Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and directed some pretty nifty films in his own right when he put together his own list in 2006. I didn't bother to break mine down into Gold-Silver-Bronze status like him and although he made his list the top tier super-best films ever variety, mine is more of a "all my favorites in one convenient list" form.

So there is no limit, nor quota for this list. Simply put if I gave it a five star review, it's here. I have not included the various Merry Melodies/Tom and Jerry/Droopy/Tex Avery cartoons that some would consider short films because if I did this list would be overwhelmed by them. I know Jonathan Rosenbaum included these films amongst his top 1000 canon, but I am not him, my rules so to hell with it. So anyways next time you're wondering what movies to watch consult this as your master list.

Oh you know how I always say "don't get mad if you're personal favorite film/director/movement/country isn't represented"? Well get mad, this is all of the films I love. There are many films I "like" that aren't on here, but these are what I consider the top dogs. So if I left something off, go ahead and cry heresy. Just to point out in advance, I intentionally didn't include Vertigo, not to be a dick or to seem "different" I just really don't get what the fuss is all about.

So less talking more movie ranking.

*Is a movie included in my recent top 100 list

1902

A Trip to the Moon (France - Georges Méliès)

1905

The White Caps (US - Edwin S. Porter)

1906

Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (US - Edwin S. Porter)

1911

The Automatic Moving Company (France - Romeo Bosetti)

The Trust:Or the
Battles for Money (France - Louis Feuillade)

1915

The Birth of a Nation (US - D. W. Griffith)

The Cheat (US - Cecil B. DeMille)

Les Vampires (France - Louis Feuillade)

1916

*Intolerance (US - D. W. Griffith)

Judex (France - Louis Feuillade)

1919

The Doll (Germany - Ernst Lubitsch)

Rowdy Ann (US - Al Christie)

1920

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Germany - Robert Wiene)

1921

The Playhouse (US - Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline)

1922

Haxaan (Sweden - Benjamin Christensen)

Nanook of the North (US - Robert Flaherty)

1923

Au Secours! (France - Able Gance)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (US - William Worsley Sr.)

*Our Hospitality (US - Buster Keaton and John G. Blystone)

Raskolnikov/Crime and Punishment (Germany - Robert Wiene)

1924

Die Nibelungen (Germany - Fritz Lang)

The Navigator (US - Buster Keaton/Donald Crisp)

Paris Qui Dort (France - Rene Clair)

Sherlock Jr. (US - Buster Keaton)

The Thief of Bagdad (US - Raoul Walsh)

1925

Battleship Potemkin (USSR - Sergei Eisenstein)

The Big Parade (US - King Vidor)

The Freshman (US - Fred Newmeyer, Sam Taylor)

The Gold Rush (US - Charlie Chaplin)

The Phantom of the Opera (US - Rupert Julian)

Variety (Germany - E. A. Dupont)

1926

Faust (Germany - F. W. Murnau)

For Heaven's Sake (US - Sam Taylor)

A Page of Madness (Japan - Teinosuke Kinugasa)

So This is Paris? (US - Ernst Lubitsch)

1927

The General (US - Buster Keaton/Clyde Bruckman)

The Kid Brother (US - Lewis Milestone, J.A. Howe, Ted Wilde)

Metropolis (Germany - Fritz Lang)

*Napoleon (France - Abel Gance)

*Sunrise (US - F. W. Murnau)

Underworld (US - Josef Von Sternberg)

The Unknown (US - Tod Browning)

1928

The Circus (US - Charlie Chaplin)

The Fall of the House of Usher (US - James Sibley Watson and
Melville Webber)